Shaun Ceci

Associate Professor

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About Dr. Ceci

B.S. in Mathematics with Highest Honors (2005), Montana State University

University Honors Baccalaureate with Highest Distinction (2005), Montana State University

Awards

University of Memphis Society Doctoral Fellow (2010)

Montana State University Award of Excellence (2005)

Commonly Taught Courses

MTH 145 — Calculus I

MTH 146 — Calculus II

MTH 245 — Calculus III

MTH 260 (CSC 281) — Discrete Mathematics

MTH 303 — Differential Equations and Mathematical Modeling

MTH 304 — Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers

MTH 335 — Introduction to Complex Variables

MTH 421 (CSC 421) — Numerical Methods

PHY 251 — Fundamentals of Engineering

Teaching Interests

Open-access instructional materials in mathematics

Novel use of technology for visualization in calculus and differential equations

Flipped classroom models for calculus and differential equations

Increasing student engagement in the classroom

Student recruitment strategies for mathematics

Research Interests

Applied analysis

Partial differential equations

Fluid dynamics and computational issues

Research

As a mathematician, my research involves the use of a combination of techniques pulled from both applied and pure branches of mathematics to explore problems in fluid dynamics. Central to the study of fluid dynamics are the Navier-Stokes equations (NSE) — which govern the motion of fluids under quite general conditions and are used to model everything from the air flow around an airplane’s wing to the movement of stars inside galaxies. Despite being essentially the simplest equations which describe the motion of a fluid, the NSE are fundamentally difficult to study from a mathematical perspective. This is evidenced by the long-standing open question, now a Clay Millennium Prize problem (where substantial progress towards a solution is worth a million dollars), of global existence and smoothness for solutions of the NSE in three-dimensional space.